The opening Latin word in Sunday's Mass is "Gaudete" so
historically, this Sunday is Gaudete Sunday... we are told
to rejoice! The letter to the Philippians says "always" and
with "no anxieties at all". How are we to make this attitude
adjustment (perhaps a major one) given the world in which we
live and the sometimes not so uplifting circumstances around
us?

God always has a Plan... we just need to follow it more
closely. No matter where you put the "R" for Rejoice, either
at the beginning or the middle or the end of the Plan, it
needs to be there at least once, but frequently is best!
Why?... because the Plan includes other "R's" too. It
includes the God initiated opportunities to Repent, Refresh,
and Recalculate.

For me, this is also "catch your breath" Sunday although
there are no such words in Scripture or the Mass that say
this. After reflecting on the readings, I re-focus and
remember the many attributes of God and simply relax (some
more "r's" ) . I can only do what I can do; God does the
rest.

Well, not entirely because I/we must also respond to the
Gospel question asked of John the Baptist: "What should we
do?" John the Baptist (and later Jesus and all preachers)
gave the crowd some sound advice then he continued to exhort
them and preach the Good News. My pastor, Fr. Jack, often
tells us "Do the next right thing."

What a powerful Gospel message and one that has a
pertinent application wherever someone is on the journey! It
is applicable to anyone and everyone, regardless of age or
any other circumstance. Our loving God continues to shower
us with blessings rather than condemnation, so all we really
need is to respond by doing " the next right thing"...and
REJOICE!!!

We’re in the Pink this third Sunday of Advent. We put
aside for this week the purple of penance and mortification.
Children realize we’re coming close to Christmas and the
lights, the trees, the carols, the coming of St. Nicholas,
aka Santa Claus. The thought of the coming soon of this
celebration of daylight coming back into the world lifts up
hearts burdened with the cold and damp of winter. There is
hope; there is joy at the prospect of a coming spring. The
sun will shine again, awakening the earth from its necessary
slumber. Tulips and daffodils will herald a new season of
growth and fruitfulness. Well at least that’s the case in
the northern hemisphere of our common home. The simplicity
of the change of season from autumn to winter has an effect
on our spirits.

The readings this Sunday are all about hope and the joy
that such hope brings. Children of affluent households hope
for specific gifts. Adults hope for a change in the season
and the warmth of a coming spring. It seems an ill founded
joy. Winter is just beginning and yet we are delighted to
know spring is a short time away. It’s time to clean up the
debris that collected in the yard. It’s time to prepare for
the coming of new growth on trees and shrubs. Flower beds
and vegetable gardens, even window boxes are cleared to make
room.

The first reading is from Zephaniah, a prophet we hear
from only a little. He spoke in Jerusalem more or less in
the years 640_630 before the birth of Jesus. It was a very
scary time. The Assyrian empire had just defeated the armies
of Egypt and of Babylon. Their influence reached into
Jerusalem and idolatry was common among its inhabitants.
Zephaniah announced the Day of the Lord, a time in which the
Lord would come in judgment of the nations. While the
Assyrian empire seemed at the peak of their dominance, a
fierce army of Scythians were swarming into the Middle East
from the north. Those tribes were not interested in
domination and rule. Their efforts were at pillaging the
wealth of Assyria, Babylon, and Egypt. Those barbarian
tribes would bring the Day of the Lord in judgment against
the powers of Assyria, Babylon, and Egypt. This threat
should be a warning to God’s People to bring them to
repentance of their embrace of the idols of foreign nations.
It was an opportunity for Israel to return to obedience to
God’s will. It was a call for humility that accepted the
need for the Lord’s presence. God’s will for all creation is
that it thrive and flourish. Sin, in Zephaniah consists of
pride, revolt against God’s will, lying, and lack of faith
in the Lord and failure to love. Zephaniah brings out the
understanding of the poor, what is called the Anawim, the
"little people." He tells of a remnant that will remain in
the city, a few left behind after the wars and slaughter and
exile. The hordes descending on the nations from the north
are in fact an occasion for repentance and purification of
the people. That purification and repentance finds a place
in the lives of the Anawim and the remnant. There is joy
among those little ones. We should take to heart in our time
and place his encouragement. "Fear not, O Zion, be not
discouraged! The Lord, your God, is in your midst, a mighty
savior; he will rejoice over you with gladness and renew you
in his love, he will sing joyfully because of you, as one
sings at festivals."

Our responsorial to the first reading is from the prophet
Isaiah, the first book of Isaiah written about the great
threat to the nation. He insists that "God is my savior; I
am confident and unafraid." Isaiah repeats the message of
Zephaniah. Be joyful for God is the Lord who saves us from
the threats of nations. We can see in this song of response
and we should embrace this hope for the presence of the Lord
among us. Over and over again in the Hebrew Scriptures we
see this theme. God is present with us. The very name the
Lord names himself to Moses at the burning bush means "I am
the one who is with you!" God does not take away our fears,
the threats to our safety, the evil of nations against us,
nor even the evil that threatens us from within our own
nation.

Paul writing to the Philippians shouts to us through
them. "Rejoice in the Lord always! I shall say it again
rejoices!" Then he adds this strange line: "your kindness
should be known to all. The Lord is near. Have no anxiety at
all, but in prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make
your requests known to God." Paul insists we should be
confident that God is with us, that God cares for us, that
God will see us through whatever the evil in the world
throws at us. How much of our time is spent in anxiety, in
fear of what evil might come our way. This is no Pollyanna-ish
view of human life. Paul doesn’t deny evil. Neither does
Zephaniah or Isaiah. Evil is real, evil is near us. But God
is also near us and is coming to be our savior from what can
harm us.

In Luke’s gospel we hear about John, the cousin of Jesus.
He preaches to those who come out into the desert near the
river Jordan to find hope. What other reason would men and
women come out from the comforts of the city but to find
hope for their condition, from their fears, and from their
anxieties? They ask John what should they do. John speaks of
repentance. The Greek word used by Luke to describe
repentance means more than just saying, "I’m sorry."
Metanoia means a turning away from – a turning toward. It is
at the same time a rejection as well as an embracing of
something new. There seem to be two classes of people asking
John what they should do to turn away from, turn toward. The
little people, the Anawim of Zephaniah, ask the question.
These are the poor, those without wealth, lacking power, and
without influence to change their own circumstances. John
treats these little ones differently than the tax collectors
and the soldiers. The little ones John tells them to share
what little they have with those who have less. These little
ones are those who cannot afford to steal or lie or cheat
others. These little ones can only survive; can only hope to
thrive by recognizing their littleness. They live their
lives heavily dependent on their communities. They must care
about each other; they must treat each other with integrity
and truthfulness.

John seems to be saying to the tax collectors and the
soldiers that they should repent of their dishonesty and
lack of concern for others. These tax collectors and
soldiers were notoriously avaricious and greedy in their
relationship with the people. John insists these persons of
power and authority must fulfill their offices with
integrity and honor.

Luke continues this narrative by noting that there was an
air of expectation in the people. John responds to this
expectation by saying, "you’ve not seen anything yet. While
I accept and confirm your will to repent of your past living
by washing you with water, the one whose coming I am telling
you about will come and wash you with the Spirit and with
fire." The Baptist’s call to repentance and a change in life
is a preparation for the one who will bring to the people a
new breath of God. The spirit of which John speaks is the
very life of God. Just as the Creator stooped to breath into
the nostrils of a clay form and gave that clay life in the
form of Adam, so also this coming one will breathe new and
vibrant life into humanity who has been prepared by a
turning away from the Way of the World. And that new life
will be like fire lighting up those lives with hope, with
faith, and with love. Those who are unprepared will be
burned by the fire as chaff from the thrashing floor is
burned. Only those hearts and minds that are prepared and
have repented of selfishness, of murder, of idolatry, of
theft, of dishonesty, and of lies will be lifted up.

We live in troubled times. There is terrible conflict,
terrible abuse of humanity, horrific torture, and
unfathomable abuse of children, women, and persons of
different race, language, national origin, gender, and
creed. Where can we go in these troubled times? If we are
among the Anawim, if we are part of the remnant of those
persons who seek truth live according to the truth of human
life, then we should join with Zephaniah and Isaiah, and
Paul, and Luke in their proclamation of hope. This is not an
empty hope; this is not a hope that demands nothing of us.
This hope insists we must turn around our lives. We may not
be liars, we may not be adulterers, we may not be murderers,
and we may not be thieves. But there are places in our
hearts and minds that can stand some cleaning up. There are
bits and pieces of the Way of the World that continue to
block the presence of the Lord within us. It’s time to clean
once again our houses and prepare to welcome the Lord into
our homes. But not only our homes! Let us bring the Lord,
the Christ into our work places, our places of
entertainment, our places of worship, our places of
learning. Rejoice, again I say rejoice! For the Lord is near
at hand to those who have prepared their hearts and minds to
receive him! May it be so!

One day a preacher on the Melbourne Yarra Bank tried to
make real for his listeners, the message of John the Baptist
today. 'If you had two houses,' he said, 'you would give one
of them away to the poor, wouldn't you?' 'Oh, yes,' said the
man closest to him, I certainly would.' The preacher went
on: 'And if you had two motor cars, you would keep one and
give the other away, wouldn't you?' 'Yes, of course', said
the same man. The preacher continued. 'And if you had two
shirts, you would give one away, wouldn't you?' 'Just a
minute,' said the man this time, 'I haven't got two houses.
I haven't got two motor cars. But I have got two shirts. I'm
not so sure now that I would give one away.'

This time the message hit home. Here was something
personal, something pointed, something practical. Here was a
real challenge that triggered off a genuine struggle to
respond to the demands of the message.

Something like this is happening to the people who go out
to the desert to listen to the preaching of John the
Baptist. He implores them to turn away from sin and turn to
God, and to express their sorrow for their sins and be
forgiven by being washed in the waters of the Jordan River.
He is offering them what they know deep down they really
need - a brand new start, a brand new way of living. But
they are not sure what it all entails.

The people in general and particular groups among them
ask John the same question: 'What must we do, then?' They
receive answers which boil down to three straight-forward
rules of life: - 1. Share with others both food and
clothing. 2. Be fair and just in your dealings with others,
never cheating anyone. 3. Don't bully others or push them
around.

The power of John's preaching and personality makes a
deep impression on the crowds. They begin to ask one
another: 'Can this be God's chosen leader, the messiah?'
John puts them right: 'I have washed you with water,' he
says, 'as a sign that your hearts should be made clean. But
someone stronger than I is on his way; I am not good enough
even to bend down like a slave and untie his sandals. He
will bring you the full power of God, the Holy Spirit. He’ll
really change your mind, your heart, your attitudes, your
behaviour, your whole self. He'll be like a farmer at
harvest when, wooden shovel in hand, he's cleaning the grain
on his threshing floor - storing the wheat in the barn and
making a bonfire of the straw.'

This message of John the Baptist hits the spot with us.
We are living in the time of the first coming of the
Messiah, his coming at Bethlehem. Right now we are preparing
to celebrate his birth, and, as our Opening Prayer puts it
today, to celebrate it with love and thanksgiving.

So, our time of preparation for the feast of Christmas is
much more than getting in the goodies for eating and
drinking and making merry on Christmas Day. It's a time for
heeding the message of John the Baptist on the meaning of
God's special coming into our lives in the person of His
Son.

So we are led to ask ourselves. 1. How widely and deeply
will I share with other people this Christmas, especially
with those who are the poorest and the most neglected in my
community? 2. How fair and just am I going to be with the
people in my life? 3. Will I stop once and for all putting
others down, hurting their feelings, or bossing them around?

'The Lord is very near,’ St Paul reminds us in the second
Reading. So near in fact that the other Readings insist:
'The Lord, the king of Israel, is in your midst', and 'among
you is the great and Holy One of Israel'.

The presence and the gift of Jesus Christ to us invite us
to make a triple response. In the first place, God says to
us in the Readings, 'Shout for joy ... shout aloud', 'cry
out with joy and gladness', 'rejoice, exult with all your
heart', 'be happy, always happy in the Lord'. In the second
place, God asks us to change our lives, as John the Baptist
has suggested. In the third place, God suggests that we
pray: 'There is no need to worry; but if there is anything
you need, pray for it ...'

As we move now from the celebration of the Word of God to
our meeting with Jesus in the bread and wine of the
Eucharist, let us remember the triple response to the coming
of Christ which God invites. 1. Let us rejoice, 2. let us
ask God for whatever we need, and 3. let us open our hearts
and lives to living as both John the Baptist and Jesus the
Messiah have taught us to live.

‘I baptise you with water, but someone is coming, someone
who is more powerful than I am, and I am not fit to undo the
strap of his sandals; he will baptise you with the Holy
Spirit and fire.

What exactly does it mean to be "baptised in the Holy
Spirit"?

Well, if you ask a theologian, he’ll tell you that it is
just simply what it is to be a Christian – to have one’s
entire life imbued with the Holy Spirit not just in the next
Life, but in this one – to have the Holy Spirit live within
you and work through you throughout your life to build God’s
Kingdom in this world. That is what makes you God’s person
in the world. That is what makes you a Christian. Well,
that’s all very fine, but to be honest, I would have to
admit that sometimes I find it quite difficult to see how
all of that actually happens just as a result of pouring a
little water on a baby’s head.

Well, some years ago, on the afternoon of New Year’s Day,
I was just settling down to watch the cricket on the
television. And I have to tell you I am a serious, serious,
SERIOUS cricket fan - nothing, absolutely nothing, gets in
front of the cricket. And I had just got properly
comfortable in front of the telly, the first ball was about
to be bowled, and in honour of our opponents, a bottle of
Red Stripe was open on the table. (And if you don’t happen
to know what that is, then it’s not for me to corrupt you!)
So, in that solemn and critical moment, there came a knock
on the door. The postman, they say, always rings twice;
well, desperate people always knock and they always knock
three times.

To tell you the God’s honest truth, I wasn’t immediately
sure I wanted to answer it, but I did. It was a man who
wanted to see a priest and, well…

Yes, it was important,

No, it couldn’t wait;

Yes, it really did have to be right now.

So I smiled my sweetest smile – really I did! I brought
him in, I sat him down, very reluctantly I turned the
television off, and I listened to him. And this is what he
said to me:

"It’s my sister. She’s in hospital. She’s really sick. We
think she’s dying. The doctors don’t know what’s wrong with
her but they think it’s cancer. To be honest, Father, she’s
not actually a Catholic and she isn’t normally very
religious. In fact, none of the family is really. She was
baptised as a child and she’s always been a good woman, but
she’s never really been involved in any church. But she
never forgot that she had been baptised and that she was a
Christian.

And now, she thinks she’s dying. So she asked us to find
a priest or a minister – or someone – to come and pray with
her. I’ve been round all the churches in the city, but it’s
New Year’s Day and they’re all locked up – this is the first
place I’ve got an answer at the door. Will you come?"

Well now, I wouldn’t want you to go doubting my
commitment to the Sacred Game, but when a man puts it like
that, I have to admit that, even the Cricket doesn’t seem
quite as important. So, we went together and found her – in
the intensive care unit, very sick, but still just about
able to respond. I anointed her – you don’t have to be a
Catholic to be anointed. And I said the Rosary with her and
her family. And after that, she fell asleep.

And then her friends and family started to tell me about
her

- about all the good things she had done in her life;

- about all the people that she had helped;

- all the people whose lives she had touched;

- all the people who would miss her and remember her with
love.

And it occurred to me that this was someone who had
indeed been baptised - someone in whom the grace of baptism
had very clearly been at work throughout her life. Even in a
very hidden and unrecognised way, the Holy Spirit had been
at work in her throughout her life, building her faith, her
relationships, her family, her love – making her God’s
person in the world – making her a Christian.

And at the end of her life – when she needed it the most–
she had been blessed with the Holy Spirit:

she had found her peace with her family

with her friends

with the Church

and with God.

That’s about the best any of us can hope for in this
world.

And so I came away from her bedside with a solemn promise
to myself that I would never – ever – ever again -
underestimate the power, the gift, the grace of baptism.

That is the grace that we have all received.

That is the responsibility that we have all undertaken.

That is the baptism with which we have all been reborn.

Let us pray that we too may live up to the promises of
our baptism;

that we too may be God’s people in the world;

and that we too may be Christians worthy of the name.

Let us stand and profess our Faith in God who has
baptised us with His Spirit.

Volume 2 is for you. Your thoughts, reflections, and
insights on the next Sundays readings can influence the
preaching you hear. Send them to preacherexchange@att.net.
Deadline is Wednesday Noon. Include your Name, and Email
Address.

-- Fr. John

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